Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles replaces financial official

A private-sector accountant has been hired by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to serve as its new chief financial officer.

The agency demoted and replaced former CFO Harold Day, who will take a $3,000 pay cut and become the agency's controller. Day will report to new CFO Jeff Moon, who was the chief financial officer of Adayana Inc., an Indianapolis management consulting firm.

Moon started his new job at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles on Monday.

"Jeff Moon has more than 20 years of finance experience and with his addition as our new CFO, our BMV senior staff is complete," Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Kent Abernathy said in a statement.

This recent change in leadership comes amid questions about political patronage at the agency.

For example, Day oversaw a $110 million annual budget as the agency's top financial official even though he lacked a college degree. However, he did have political ties as a longtime GOP ward boss and the husband of an Indianapolis councilwoman.

Agency officials have maintained that political patronage didn't play a role in the decision to hire Day or others within the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Regardless, Abernathy has been working to make changes in the agency's senior leadership team since Gov. Mike Pence appointed him to the position in February. He also has hired a new chief of staff, general counsel, and chief information officer since March.

"We are confident that with the experience and professional background of our team, we will succeed in making the Indiana BMV the most efficient and trustworthy motor vehicle agency in the country," Abernathy said in the statement.

In addition to the changes in the senior leadership team, the agency recently formed a Project Management Office and is the process of hiring a director for the new Central Office Internal Audit Division, which will conduct reviews of the agency's internal control systems and operational processes.

The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles has faced scrutiny since a 2013 lawsuit revealed that Indiana motorists had been overcharged more than $60 million for driver's licenses and registration fees over the course of several years. Since then, the agency has refunded the money, but a second lawsuit has been filed seeking to collect an additional $40 million.

Day has claimed he wasn't involved in the overcharges.